Resident duty hours: the 1992 cap says 12 hours. Who is actually enforcing it?

Every resident in India knows the gap between what the rules say and what the roster says.

The position on paper: a Ministry of Health notification dated 5 June 1992 caps resident duty at 12 hours a day and 48 hours a week. The Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023 require only that institutions allow "reasonable" working hours and "reasonable" rest — without defining either word.

The position in practice: residents at institutions including AIIMS Bhubaneswar and AFMC Pune have told the Supreme Court they were worked 30–36 hour shifts, with others reporting 70–100 hour weeks. When the matter reached the Court, the NMC's position was that implementation rests with state governments and institutions, because its own remit is academic standards.

So we have a cap that is 34 years old, a regulation that declines to define its central term, and a regulator that says enforcement is someone else's job.

I want to hear from residents and consultants across specialties and states. Not "it's terrible" — we know that. Specifically: what is the actual roster in your unit this month? Has any authority ever inspected it? And if a numerical cap were enforced tomorrow, what would break first — and what would we need to fix alongside it?

A record of what is genuinely happening, department by department, is worth more than another editorial.